Grain Free – safety in numbers?

Grain Free Diets – it doesn’t seem that long ago that we had 1 Grain Free Diet in the Pookinuk range, now we have 17 in total. 11 Dog and 6 cat grain free diets. It is all due to existing American brands making their way into the Australian market, much to the delight of the discerning pet owner here in Australia. Brands such as Artemis, Canidae, Earthborn, Evo, Innova and Taste of the Wild are all now available in Australia.

Most of these brands have more traditional diets utilising fibre sources such as brown rice, pearled barley, or even oatmeal to balance up their diets, however Taste of the Wild is an all GRAIN FREE offering.

Some customers in the early days were concerned about the high fat and high protein combination of the grain free diets with some diets as high as 42% Protein and 22% Fat. Some dogs do extremely well on these very high percentages and for others it is too rich a diet. Now however there is an enormous choice of different combinations with the lowest on offer being a 25% Protein and 15% Fat balance.

It is little wonder that the Grain Free diets have come into vogue given the amount of phonecalls we receive at Pookinuk regarding allergy issues. Things such as itchy skin, hot spots, yeast problems in ears, sensitive stomachs etc are a very common issue. Thankfully these Grain Free diets seem to be combating these issues. A simple diet of real protein sources (ie; salmon, bison, chicken, lamb, etc) balanced with a non grain carbohydrate such as potatoes or sweet potatoes seem to be giving these dogs suffering allergy issues relief.

Regardless of your preference between brands if you are considering a grain free diet for your dog or cat you now certainly have a wide variety of choice , after all there is safety in numbers!